Sabah, an east Malaysian region on the island of Borneo, is known for its multicultural communities with diverse ethnic groups. While this may have been portrayed in media discourse, it is not clear if it lends itself to other types of discourse. One which should be accounted for is that produced and disseminated by researchers. This is because perspectives in research discourse may be taken for granted as being objective. However, recognising that researchers may offer a slightly distinct take on issues related to ethnicity, this chapter aims to offer an examination through discursive positioning. To this end, research in both English and Malay published over the last decade (2013 to 2023) on the notion of ‘ethnic’ in Sabah were analysed through Laclau and Mouffe’s concepts of nodal points and meaningful signifiers. A search of relevant research articles was done through Google Scholar with the search terms ‘ethnic + identity’ and ‘Sabah’. Fourteen articles were identified, with most of them being written in Malay and one in English. From the articles, the nodal point ‘ethnic’ (or the Malay equivalent ‘etnik’) was extracted, along with their contexts of occurrence. Floating signifiers were subsequently identified in these contexts. Findings indicated that there were at least three ways of attributing the notion of ‘ethnic’ in Sabah, which were through relations, diversity, and characteristics. Further reading of the contexts of these signifiers illustrated how research discourse sought to illustrate the importance of ethnic markers, religion, as well as distinguishing ethnic groups of Sabah with other parts of Malaysia. Moreover, the discourse of researchers may be privileged and exclusive in terms of its accessibility to the public and also in the selection of groups portrayed.